Tuesday, July 26, 2016

It's not yet possible to buy locations in the UK - although it will come soon, and McDonalds has paid for 'Gyms' to be located at 3,000 of its restaurants in Japan - but some companies are using guerrilla tactics to capitalise on the craze.

Friday, July 01, 2016

It's the first time I've been, and it was a great week. There were lots of interesting talks, meetings, installations and more. So many people seem to have been there, and it's always strange to unexpectedly bump into people you know from home when you're abroad, especially at midnight at a party, or walking along the street, but clearly at Cannes this is the normal state of affairs.

Here are fifteen of the best things I saw, either around and about at Cannes, or in competition (although to be honest I watched those online back in London...). I've tried to steer away from the more famous ones like #OptOutside.

Life Saving Stickers - I love simple ideas, and this one, making life-sized stickers that look like kids to stick onto wheelie bins is great.

Tata - Dipper Condoms - Trucks in India have the slogan 'Use Dipper at Night' to remind drivers to dip their headlights. But Tata trucks took this as their inspiration to create a condom brand called Dippers to reduce levels of sexual disease among truck drivers

There was lots of VR on display - I really liked Samsung's Maison Samsung which had lots of things you could try out

The Second Scoreboard - A campaign in Costa Rica put a second scoreboard on the TV during football matches - showing how many domestic violence events had been recorded during the match. A great way to raise awareness among likely perpetrators.

BMW - Animal detecting billboards - Billboards on windy roads that used video cameras with night vision to show what animals had strayed onto the roads ahead.

Grab a seat – it’s Pimms O’Clock - Also using live posters - time time using beacons to see which local beer gardens had spaces, and putting the information onto digital poster sites

Legoland Dollars - Lego produced a physical currently for kids to spend at its resorts, and managed to get the dollars sold at foreign exchange desks in airports, including an entry on the foreign exchange display board

Lots of media owners did stunts - I really liked the 'Pinterest in Real Life' with tips for what to do in and out of Cannes

Clever Kash – ASB knew that parents didn't always have loose change for pocket money so they made a physical piggy bank that could be topped up via an app.

Pink Ribbon - Check it before it’s removed – It's against Facebook's Ts&cs to put pictures of bare breasts on the site, so Pink Ribbon posted pics of to highlight how women had to check their breasts before they were removed too. A very bold campaign.

Donate the bars - Another campaign that used features of a media property - in this case people who took vertical videos and uploaded them to YouTube were able to donate the blank black bars on either side to charity campaigns

Verizon in Minecraft - Verizon actually built a working cell tower in Minecraft, giving connectivity to phones

Toyota Landcruiser Emergency Network - There were several campaigns based around creating a movement (for example the more famous The Swedish Number). This one allowed Australian Toyota Landcruiser owners to form their own mobile network to spread safety alerts in areas of low connectivity.

There weren't many (any?) chatbots - there will be best year - but a local taxi company was using Messenger as a way of booking